Shortly after 3:30 p.m. local time July 28, five rockets struck Afula in northern Israel, a town previously unscathed and out of range of Hezbollah rockets. No injuries were reported, but the explosions did start a fire. Afula is situated about seven miles south of Nazareth — the deepest Hezbollah had been able to strike into Israel before this barrage. It is situated on a crossroad that has almost certainly seen a lot of Israel Defense Forces (IDF) traffic moving from the south into northeastern Israel. However, Hezbollah is not firing these artillery rockets on a militarily meaningful scale. That said, it is worth remembering that in a chance hit in Haifa on July 16, Hezbollah rockets killed eight people at a train station. Israeli specialists are analyzing the remains of these five rockets. The IDF claims they are the Fajr-5. This is a larger version of the Fajr-3 which Hezbollah has been using to strike Haifa. With a range of 45 miles and a 200-pound warhead — twice that of the Fajr-3 — the Fajr-5 will certainly do more damage. Hezbollah sometimes renames its artillery rockets, so its claims that it fired the Khaibar-1 may be accurate. Hezbollah could have renamed the Fajr-5 the Khaibar-1 in an attempt to obscure performance characteristics, give a nod to history and make a public relations move; Khaibar, or "fortified place," was a Jewish stronghold 80 miles from the Muslim holy city of Medina. The Battle for Khaibar, which took place in 628, is celebrated in Muslim history as the end of Jewish resistance to the Prophet Mohammed. Ali bin Abi Talib played a lead role in the battle. Ali is the most revered figure for the Shia after Mohammed and is also respected by Sunnis. Although Hezbollah could have struck deeper into Israel with the Fajr-5 — perhaps the larger coastal cities of Hadera or Netanya — it appears that IDF operations have pushed the militants' launch sites deeper into southern Lebanon. Though Afula is not Haifa, the use of a larger artillery rocket marks an escalation. Israeli forces will now be more inclined to continue the fight and push deeper into Lebanon, and the strikes demonstrate Hezbollah's robust capability to continue launching large artillery rockets — an ability that might not yet have been brought to bear.